NY Chabad Stabbing Victim Lights Hanukkah Candles with NYPD

Levi Rosenblatt thanks police in Hanukkah ceremony for their swift action after attack on him; Shomrim show solidity after police shooting.

Contact Editor

Chaim Lev, Ari Yashar, 23/12/14 15:31

770 Chabad center after stabbing (file)

Courtesy of Haredim 10

Levi Rosenblatt (22), who was stabbed in the head two weeks ago in a shocking nighttime attack on the Crown Heights' 770 Chabad Lubavitch center in Brooklyn, New York, lit candles for the seventh night of Hanukkah on Monday at the Crown Heights police station.

In the lighting ceremony, dozens of NYPD police officers and senior members of the local police station took part.

According to the site Chabad Online, during the lighting Rosenblatt and his friends took the opportunity to thank the officers for preventing the stabber, Calvin Peters (49), from stabbing other students at the Chabad center.

In the attack Peters, who had a history of mental illness and a long arrest record, threatened others with a knife shouting "I'm killing a Jew!" before a tense standoff with police, which ended with police shooting him as he threatened them with the knife, inflicting wounds he later died of.

"I want to thank the New York police for taking care of the security of 770 around the clock, and I give thanks to the captains who arrived that night and saved the situation," said Rosenblatt.

Rosenblatt was released from the hospital last Wednesday after a mere eight days, with Bellevue Medical Center chief of neurosurgery Dr. Paul Huang appraising "he has had an amazing recovery."

"Mr. Rosenblatt suffered a knife injury to the blood vessels in an extremely sensitive area of his brain," said Huang. "He underwent a procedure to repair two blood vessels, which was successful."

The "Shomrim" organization of local Jewish security volunteers in Williamsburg, New York also lit Hanukkah candles on Monday with NYPD officers to show support and identification with the police after two officers were brutally shot to death on Saturday.

In the ceremony senior police figures took part, and expressed their appreciation of the initiative meant to support the police in this trying period.